Peanut Butter and Jelly Coconut Cashew Sandwich Cookies

This combination is no-bake, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, with no added sugar, and no added oil or salt. And it actually tastes better than good.

I think mini food or sandwiched-food of any kind automatically tastes better anyway.

The cookie dough comes together in about 1 minute in the food processor. Simply combine cashews, walnuts, coconut, agave, cinnamon, and blend. That’s your cookie dough. It’s a small batch recipe, yielding just 8 sandwiches. Something fun to munch on, but no worries of lingering leftovers.

Normally I don’t like whole nuts and big chunky pebbles in my desserts, but when they’re blended in submission and used to create a raw vegan dough, I’m all about them. In this recipe I used both cashew and walnuts. I think of cashews as plant-based butter. Smooth and creamy, soft and easily blended, with fairly neutral flavor that can be played up or played down, and mixed with just about anything else to give a richness like you’d get from butter. Walnuts are much bolder and have a more distinct flavor, and they’re a softer nut, full of natural oils, and are easy to blend.

You can likely mix and match the nuts used, but I recommend keeping in some cashews for their highly blendable, buttery, richness. Peanuts are fine but have a distinct, discernible flavor. For their neutral-flavor status and all around smooth blendability, cashews are hard to beat.

Almonds are not my favorite in no-bake cookie dough recipes because they’re harder, firmer, and are like trying to blend up rocks. They do ultimately break down, but don’t have that same buttery, smooth, rich flavor that cashews, walnuts, or macadamia nuts have. Use softer, fattier nuts for best results.

I used sweetened shredded coconut. You may use unsweetened, but the only sweetener added to the entire recipe is just one-quarter cup agave; so minimal. Therefore, the dough isn’t very sweet and is more on the natural, nuttier side, and the sweetness from the sweetened coconut flakes helps the cookies taste like cookies rather than a bland mass of nuts.

After combining the ingredients and blending, the mixture will resemble something like this Cinnamon Oatmeal Date Bar dough (below)

The dough should come together in a well-formed mass. It’s a good sign if turns into a ball that slaps around the food processor like a tennis ball in the dryer. Because ingredients vary and not all nuts and coconut have the same moisture levels, you may have to play around with the ratios slightly, adding a pinch more coconut or more nuts, or an additional drizzle of agave.

Proper dough will be dense and when squeezed between fingers, it should hold it’s shape, not fall apart, nor be crumbly. The goal is a dough that is dense, thick, holds it shape, can be packed into a pan, and when sliced, will hold it’s shape in bar form. Because the nuts release their natural oils after being blended, don’t be alarmed if it seems a touch oily, which diminishes in time.

As a reminder, make sure not to set-it-and-forget it with your food processor, because after 45 seconds you’ll have have nut-based cookie dough for the sandwich cookies. And after 4 minutes, you’ll have nut butter. I’ve accidentally made Peanut Butter and have frequently accidentally make cashew butter.

Transfer the dough to a foil-lined and cooking sprayed 8-by-8-inch pan. With your hands or a spatula, press it down, packing it into the corners, and smooth the top with a spatula. The dough layer will seem a bit thin and skimpy, but remember it’s later doubled up for sandwich cookies. You don’t want to make it too thick now, or it’ll be quite the wad to bite into later. Make sure you use an 8×8 pan and not a 9×9 pan, or the dough will likely not fully cover the pan.

Refrigerate the pan for at least two hours, or overnight, until dough firms up and can be sliced. You could probably shortcut this by placing it in the freezer briefly; just don’t let it freeze.

Slice dough into 16 equal-sized 2-inch square pieces. You could theoretically slice them after assembling and filling them with PB & J, but the splooge-out risk is higher, and I slice before assembly.

Add a layer of peanut butter to half the pieces. Add your favorite jelly to the other half. Pair them up and make sandwiches. The thicker the smears of peanut butter and jelly, the messier, but also the tastier, they are.

The slip-and-slide factor increases, but that’s what napkins are for.

The cookies are loaded with earthy, nutty, robust flavors from both the walnuts and coconut, with the walnut flavor dominating. If you like texture, these are jam packed with tons of it, and you’ll find yourself picking coconut flakes and tiny, nutty pebbles out of your teeth hours later. There are worse things.

The cookies themselves are very chewy, dense, and not too sweet. The overall sweetness of the sandwiches as a whole comes from the sweet jelly. Use your favorite flavor, but something about strawberry jelly and peanut butter is always a winner for me.

These healthy, all-natural little sandwich cookies are make quickly and easily in a food processor, by blending nuts and coconut, before filling them with peanut butter and jelly. The cookie 'dough' is made from nuts, coconut flakes, and agave. It's full of rich nutty flavor, and packed with texture from the coconut flakes and nuts. It's just lightly sweetened, making it the perfect canvas to be layer with creamy peanut butter and sweet jelly. A fast, easy, vegan, gluten-free, and healthy twist on peanut butter and jelly - and on sandwich cookies.

Directions:

Line an 8-by-8-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.

To the canister of a food processor, combine 1 cup cashews, walnuts, coconut, agave, cinnamon, vanilla, optional salt and process for about 30 seconds, or pulse as needed until mixture breaks down and combines. Mixture will likely be on the wet side and if so, add the remaining 1/4 cup of cashews and pulse to incorporate.

The dough should come together in a well-formed mass; it's a good sign if it's slapping around the food processor like a tennis ball in the dryer. Because ingredients vary and not all nuts and coconut have the same moisture levels, you may have to play around with the ratios slightly, adding a pinch more coconut or more nuts, or an additional drizzle of agave, for dough to combine. Dough will be dense and when squeezed between fingers, it should hold it’s shape, not fall apart, nor be crumbly. The goal is a dough that is dense, thick, holds it shape, can be packed into a pan, and when sliced, will hold it’s shape in bar form.

With your hands or a spatula, press dough into prepared pan, packing it down, pushing it into the corners, and smooth it with a spatula. Dough layer will seem a little thin and a bit skimpy in the pan but is later doubled up for sandwich cookies. Refrigerate pan for at least two hours, or overnight, until dough firms up and can be sliced. You could probably shortcut this by placing pan in the freezer briefly; just don't let it freeze.

Slice dough into 16 equal-sized 2-inch square pieces. Add a layer of peanut butter to half the pieces. Add jelly to the other half. Pair them up and make sandwiches. Cookies will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container at room temperature, or up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. I store mine in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Averie Cooks. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.

Caramel Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars – The crust and streusel topping is made using the same mixture which saves time. Layers of apricot jelly and caramel are baked right in to these texture-filled, sweet and easy bars

Strawberry Jelly Rolls – Full of jelly and a sneaky shortcut is used so these are ready from start to finish in under 15 minutes

Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls (no-bake, vegan, GF) – One of the most popular recipes on my site since 2009, usually either the most or second most popular recipe, every year. Made with cashews, oats, agave, and they taste so similar to real cookie dough, but they’re vegan and you’d never know it. They freeze well and I always have a frozen stash for cookie dough cravings

Do you have a favorite no-bake recipe?

I love tossing nuts, dates, coconuts, oats, agave, peanut butter and various combinations thereof in the food processor and making no-bake bites, balls, and bars. So easy and there’s no wrong way to combine ingredients. Sometimes I use peanut butter, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I use only oats and dates, no nuts; just depends what I have on hand and what I feel like.

In all honesty, I thought to myself “Finally something I don’t have to add to the ‘To Cook’ list!” when I first read the title. And then I made the mistake of looking at the pictures and reading how easy it is to make! Even though I was about to hit the hay, now I’m up and hungry! Blarg!

The sandwich cookie part definitely reminds me of the raw vegan bites/ balls– one of my favorites is walnuts, cashews, dates, cacao nibs or powder. So many options for nuts, dried fruit and spices mixed in a food processor. This recipe makes me want to make a little batch of mango jam–I have instant pectin so could still keep this easy. I also loved the dark brown sugar coconut oil cookies–I made up the dough yesterday morning and satisfied a little cookie craving last night. I was impressed with how the coconut oil and brown sugar became so smooth and fluffy in the mixer and the flavor is great!

walnuts, cashews, dates, cacao nibs or powder = my very first blog post ever!! Raw vegan brownies. There was agave in there too and ironically I have thought about remaking them, modern day, with modern photography :)

And so glad you tried the cookies. I am in love with that dough. And yes, the fluffing in the mixer is pretty impressive. I have tried to recreate that dough with other flavors, ingredients, etc but that exact version is still winning in all my recipe trials and tests!

“Everything is better with peanut butter.” – you know, Averie, there is so much love and passion in this words that even I, person who doesn’t eat peanut butter, is willing to try it one more time! And yes, I did pre-order your book too. :)
Yesterday I was at food coop to buy some produce, and stumble upon a large bag of peanuts. I thought of you right that moment: Averie would love it! It was a big burlap bag. They just had it delivered and were shelling it. They did give me some to try and I have to admit that raw peanuts taste much better that what the other stores sell. Didn’t make me a fan of peanut butter yet, but raw nuts I can tolerate some. I guess there’s a lot to do with what you grew up with. Peanut butter and jelly doesn’t exist in our cuisine, we eat for breakfast what people in US eat for dinner. :) This sandwich makes a great snack when you go hiking. Keeping this recipe!

Why do you torture me through a computer screen! I need a new blade for my big food processor (I somehow broke the “normal” one and have been using my expensive food processor as a cheese grater for quite some time)– but this is definitely incentive. This sounds like, crazy good. PBJ sandwich cookies? Nutty cookie to sandwich it between? mmmm Drooling.

I feel the exact same way about mini food and sandwiched food! These look so delicious with the bright, vibrant jam oozing out, and that perfect, simple raw cookie dough. I’m pretty sure I would love these!

Peanut butter and jelly is just about as good a combo as peanut butter and chocolate, in my opinion. There’s just something perfect about the sticky sweet jelly mixed with the creamy rich peanut butter. Mmmm. These sandwich cookies are so pretty and they sound really good too! Loving the bright red pop of color Averie. :)

cashews = plant based butter. YES. Averie I LOVE cashews so much for their taste, but it’s their texture that I adore the most, especially blended! And unsweetened coconut ?!? I don’t buy the stuff. Always sweetened. I know you don’t like nuts in your baked goods, but I freaking LOVE them! Funny thing is is that I used HATE them. Loathe them. Picked them all out and got mad at my mom for baking oatmeal raisin cookies with walnuts. “eww!” I would say. Anyway… off topic… but I love nutty desserts and these ADORABLE little mini sandwiches (yes mini is better) are too good to be true. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I may like peanut butter and jelly more than peanut butter and chocolate. Please don’t ban me from your blog or your life. ;)

PS: I’m glad you linked to your cookbook at the bottom of the post!!! Make sure you do that on all your pb recipes girl!

Hi Averie. I just have to say that your photographs are so amazing lately. I was on foodgwaker the other day and saw your peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies and I swear, I wanted to grab one up right then and there. I also love the pops of raspberry in these cookies. I think I might even like these cookies alone, as they sound so yummy with all of the nuts in them. I took a 4 day mini-vacation from the computer so I have some catching up to do on your site.

These are just too cook. A classic Averie circa 2 years ago recipe, but much more refined and sophisticated. I half expected to see you in some crazy ass yoga pose at the end of the post! I still see those in my mind’s eye every now and then. The backbend with your leg up….whatever that was called it was BONKERS.

I love the looks of those little sandwich cookies! How awesome that they are all healthy and easy to whip together in the food processor! As you already know, we are definite fans of your thumbprints so we will have to give these a go, too!

I look at A LOT of pictures of food (don’t we all?) and your pictures literally had me drooling over my computer. Now I want PB & J in a bad, bad way. But seriously, stunning pictures. I would visit a museum of pictures like this!